Review: Baggarrook-al Biik-u – She is of Country

Women's business is moving and beautiful and we're privileged to see it

What does it mean to acknowledge Country? By now many of us are familiar with this practice at the start of events and special occasions, but what about in our everyday activities? How do we walk with respect on earth where thousands of feet have trod before? A Melbourne exhibition explores these questions.

Baggarrook-al Biik-u – She is of Country is an invitation to immerse yourself in Country from a Wurundjeri woman’s perspective. I found it was a gentle space and one in which we are privileged to witness women’s dance and song. Dr Mandy Nicholson (Wurundjeri, Dja Dja wurrung and Ngurai Illum wurrung) has created something generous and moving.

The Dulux Gallery on the University of Melbourne Parkville campus is a below-ground space. This is appropriate, in some symbolic way, for an exhibition about Country. Exploring components including below, on, water, wind, sky and star countries. Each of these important subjects is presented through sound, images, and video via a dedicated screen with headphones. Leaves on the floor guide the viewer down the stairs into the gallery space—some deliberate, others just blowing in from the London Plane trees outside.

Nicholson’s powerful voice guides the viewer through the significance of each Country, using Woiwurrung words to describe the features of each. Below Country, or Biik-ut, I learn, includes the tiny creatures under the surface of the soil and the vast network of communication between tree roots and mycelium. Clay and ochre are gathered for ceremony and for Sorry Business from Biik-ut. Biik-dui is where we all live, on country. Water Country (Baanj Biik) is suffering from mistreatment and needs our care. In Murnmut Biik, or Wind Country, Wurundjeri voices are carried up to Bunjil, the creator, while Sky Country (Wurru wurru Biik) is where we see Bunjil and other Spiritual Protectors in their physical forms. Bunjil is the Wedgetail eagle is the most well-known, but here we are also introduced to Djurt Djurt, the nankeen kestrel and dandan the rainbow lorikeet. Lastly, Bunjil’s home is Tharangalk Biik, also called Star Country.

The exhibition also looks at Baban Darrang, the Mother Tree, and the metaphorical comparison to cultural survival. The story of the Mother Tree is told once again through Nicholson’s voice singing in a wall-sized video work above a circle of cushions on the floor. I sat on one of these cushions, a little below ground, surrounded by tree trunk wallpaper, looking up at footage of tall Eucalypts, shrouded in mist. The footage is gentle and entrancing, slowly orientating us to the rhythm of trees and bird calls.

Slowly—through close up footage of ceremonial adornments, hands, feet and the application of ochre to women’s faces—we see the Djirri Djirri dance group preparing to perform. Gathering pace during the performance following, the video then concludes with celebratory cries of delight.

Originally shown in the Emu Sky exhibition,¹ curated by Barkandji woman Zena Cumpston, baban darrang (mother tree) was directed by award-winning Worimi artist Genevieve Grieves, the was producer Andrea Distefano, and the cinematographer Sky Davies. It was edited by Josh Burns with sound design by Jenn Leonforte. I mention these collaborators as a way to gently remind us that existing ideas about artists as solo creators are never really appropriate. Baggarrook-al Biik-u – She is of Country shows us the village.

The film is available through the GARUWA First Nations storytelling agency:

I met Mandy Nicholson in 2022 during the crowd funding campaign to have William Barak’s artworks returned to Country. (I’ve written about this here.²) We were interviewed for the Art Show on the ABC and I was easily in awe of her knowledge and tenacity. Mandy was a research fellow at the State Library of Victoria in 2019, her project featuring similar themes to the components of Country explored in this exhibition. Her work demonstrates a significant commitment to women’s knowledge and language reclamation.

As a visual artist, she also mentors young Aboriginal girls and women and coordinates the Djirri Djirri dance group who feature in the videos in this exhibition. For a number of years, Nicholson worked at the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages as a Woiwurrung Language specialist and also as an oral history worker at the Koorie Heritage Trust. A previous artwork about Star Country featured in the State Library Victoria’s Handmade Universe exhibition where it shone alongside key examples of women’s knowledge of making, invention and inquiry.

Language is a central concern of Nicholson’s multi-disciplinary practice. Her work directly challenges the attempted erasure of Kulin culture by colonisation. None of the languages in the region we now know as Victoria are considered to be in wide, everyday usage. So, it was a highlight of the exhibition to hear, read and see so much Woiwurrung language.

This exhibition is an opportunity and an invitation to immerse yourself in Country from a Wurundjeri woman’s point of view. I found it was a gentle space and one in which we are privileged to witness women’s ceremony. Such generosity should not go unacknowledged, see it if you can.

Baggarrook-al Biik-u –She is of Country is on from 20 March to 2 April 2024 in the Dulux Gallery, Glyn Davis Building (MSD), Masson Road, Parkville.

1. I am still gutted I missed this amazing exhibition. The website linked above is a beautiful record of what, seems to me, was a hugely significant celebration and recognition of Indigenous knowledge.

2. See also: ‘Price and Provenance: William Barak as an Artist in the Market’ in Crosscurrents in Australian First Nations and Non-Indigenous Art, edited by Sarah Scott, Helen McDonald and Caroline Jordan, 45-60. London: Routledge, 2023.